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Monday, April 2, 2007

Safety News In Brief

Date Incident
26 Mar A Lan Chile pilot flying between Santiago and Auckland heard and saw a piece of space junk fly right past his A340 aircraft. What he heard was debris moving at supersonic speed. The encounter happened about 10 minutes after the airliner had crossed into the Auckland FIR (Flight Information Region). Russian authorities warned two weeks ago that Progress 23P would be re-entering the earth's atmosphere between 1030am and midday Auckland time. The Progress undocked from the Intl Space Station last Tuesday and according to NOTAMS issued to pilots, was supposed to enter the atmosphere at about 08h30 UTC at around 40S 40E. It apparently didn't. Russian authorities are claiming that it must have been a meteorite.
25 Mar Mooney will soon be offering retro-fittable inflatable airbag seatbelts (AAIRs) that have been offered on new Mooneys since 2004. Kit pricing starts at US$6900 for two seats and US$10,800 for four seats.
24 Mar Cirrus SR20 & 22 aircraft have been STC'd for Alakai Digital Flight Data Recorders in order to satisfy a pilot workload demand during Part 135 air taxi operations for logging of engine data. An added advantage will be engine health monitoring.
23 Mar FCC Chairman Kevin Martin will recommend that the commission not lift a ban on in-flight cellphone use, according to three agency officials. Testing last year showed that calls cause interference with relay towers on the ground and that planned funneling of outgoing calls through onboard antennae (called pico cells) wouldn't stop that effectively.
21 Mar Airservices Australia has begun RNP (required navigation performance) trials at Cairns International Airport as a precursor to mandate using the capabilities of modern aircraft flight management systems to reduce fuel burn, noise and emissions over metropolitan areas. The Cairns trials involve Qantas B-737-800s, which are already flying environmentally friendly RNP procedures at Townsville, Alice Springs, Canberra, and Gold Coast airports.

 

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